Immigration Update: China

10th November, 2016

New Policies for Foreign Work Permit Applications in China

Effective 1 November 2016, all Labour Bureaus in China will conduct experimental management in Alien Work Permit applications. From 1 April, 2017 onwards, all of China will officially implement the final results of the experimental management.

Below is a brief summary of the new experimental policies :

At present, foreigners who work in China are required to apply for the Alien Employment Notification before applying for the Z-visa at the Chinese Embassy. Previously it was known as Alien Employment License. Thereafter, the applications that follow will be the Alien Work Permit and Residence Permit which must be completed within 30 days upon arrival in China with the single entry Z-visa.

All employers are required to do Real Name registration in the Alien Employment Management Service System before filing the Work Permit application for their foreign employees. Real Name registration essentially means that the company must register all relevant information in the management system of the Labour Bureau.

Employers should apply for the Alien Employment Notification online and upload all application documents to the system for pre-assessment before the official application can be filed at the Labour Bureau with all hard copies of the application documents.

The New Alien Work Permit application requires the legalization of non-criminal record and highest academic degree at the Chinese Embassy overseas. Several documents such as CV, original reference letter and original application letter may be exempted. So far, the exempted document checklist has not been officially confirmed and is still needs to be verified with the respective Labour Bureau in different cities.

China will classify foreign employees with the points-based system to attract more talent, which will also impact the procedure of the Alien Work Permit application. Foreign employees will also be divided into three categories below:

Type A: High Level Talents – There is no limitation on quota

Type B: Common Talents – There is limitation on quota based on market needs.

Type C: Common Applicants – The Chinese government will implement a quota management which can be checked directly on the Alien Employment Management Service System

For foreign employees who have already obtained valid Work Permits before or by 1 Nov 2016, there will be no impact from this new policy. Any new or renewal work permit application from 1 Nov 2016 will be subject to the experimental policies.

Foreign employees who have already obtained valid Residence Permits but need to transfer to different companies and/or difference cities in China must apply for the new Alien Work Permit directly within the validity of the Residence Permit.

In addition, effective from 1 Dec 2016, Chinese Embassies overseas will not accept Alien Employment License for the Z-visa application and will only accept the new Alien Employment Notification. Before 1 Dec 2016, foreign employees are still able to apply for the Alien Employment License for the Z-visa application.

Impact & Recommendation

The New Alien Work Permit application requires the legalization of non-criminal record and highest academic degree at the Chinese Embassy overseas. In this regard, foreign employees will need to start preparing for the process earlier. In cities like Shanghai, non-criminal record certificate was not required in the past and this will now be required.

China will classify foreign employees with the points-based system to attract more talent, which will also impact the procedure of the Alien Work Permit application as it will now take a longer time to process considering the need to now assess the eligibility of applicants

Since all Work Permit applications will require that companies first complete the Real Name registration, we advise that this be done in advance to avoid any potential delays when a Work Permit is due for submission.

Please note that we are still trying to gather more details regarding the new policies as the implementation of the new policies may be different across all cities in China and these are all on experimental stage at the moment. We will follow up with the Labour Bureau and confirm on further requirements.

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